Karina Raeck

Karina Raeck (born April 8, 1938 in Berlin ) is a German sculptor , object artist , landscape architect and photographer .

biography

Karina Raeck grew up in Berlin, Vienna and Düsseldorf. After high school, she studied acting and expressive dance in Düsseldorf and Hamburg from 1956 to 1959 and then received engagements at the municipal theaters of Lübeck, Hamburg and Düsseldorf.

In the 1960s, Karina met the sculptor Hannes Esser and married him. Study trips from 1961 to 1968 through France, Spain, Greece and at the end of 1969 to Mexico took Karina Raeck into the fields of archeology and mythology . The theme of the ruin as a natural phenomenon moved Karina Raeck and from then on shaped all her future work between the built and the grown. In Greece , Karina bought an old wooden sailing ship together with Hannes Esser, and without Hannes knowing how to control it, the two of them toured the Aegean Sea with a dog, cats, chickens and a goat on board. The special combination of landscape, culture and history accompanied by tradition and history, the light and the people, led Karina to live most of her life in Greece, whether Athens , Crete or the Cyclades .

She has been working as a freelance artist since 1970. Karina Raeck worked in the 1960s and early 1970s to collages , fetishes , mythical creatures and surreal trouvés Objet , collected and put together. Exhibition installations , the “ Landscape / Death Garden ” in Aachen , “ Cimetière ” in Paris 1973 and the installation image “ Gesänge des Maldoror ” in Vence 1977 reflect this creative phase.

Signpost to the "Andartis"

“Andartis” Memorial of Peace, around 1990

“Andartis”, Nida plateau, Crete

Art station “Bei der Buche”, Stuttgart

In the late 1970s, they realized numerous landscape art projects , built utopian architectures or archaic simulated imaginary landscapes of rubble from different materials and developed a new form of art. From 1976 to 1978 Karina Raeck took part in the summer symposia "Art-Landscape" at the Falazik Gallery in the Lüneburg Heath . Artists were invited to work in and with the landscape. Initially without a specific intention, it turned out that some of the exterior works, preferably those made of stone, steel or with soil, had lasted for years.

In a photo-documentary collaborative effort with her friend Gary Rieveschl (* 1943), black and white photographs were taken from 1978 to 1982 during city walks through the historical worlds of old West Berlin . For decades, a “coal dump landscape”, the iron reserve of Berlin, spread out on the site of the former Anhalter freight station and today's Berlin Museum of Technology . After the blockade, Niederlausitz acquired from the west and painstakingly erected by workers from East Berlin, this monument fell into disrepair and unused; an erosion process in the dialogue between structure and chaos. The German-German border ran right through the middle of Bernauer Strasse . Until 1961, Bernauer Strasse was an inner-city residential street, but after the windows had been hastily walled up to prevent people from fleeing the GDR, the borders ran right through the street: the houses on the east side, the sidewalk already west. Karina Raeck and Gary Rieveschl confront the viewer with relics of a broken metropolis and show the inner city area, which was cut up by the border wall, in a period of stagnation in those years, an archeology of the recent past .

Further urban archaeological securing of evidence of the recent past in West Berlin followed in the years up to 1986. In 1979, the demolition bricks post-war West were made into the "Sunken Cult Site" in the sculpture garden at the radio tower, Berlin-Charlottenburg. In 1983 the German Association of Artists held a large exhibition with simultaneous display of the National Gallery and the Martin Gropius Building . Karina Raeck set up her “consumer cenotaph ” in the north rotunda of the Martin-Gropius-Bau . In 1985 Karina designed the petrified " dragonfly throne ", a monument made of tufa, in the Britz garden on the occasion of the BUGA . To this day, not all visitors take care of the Britzer Garten. At the moment Karina Raeck's petrified "dragonfly throne" is apparently used as a quarry.

From 1986 to 1988 Karina Raeck hiked the Cretan mountain villages and developed the idea for a landscape sculpture, a monument for peace, which was to be dedicated to the resistance struggle of the Cretans against the German occupation in World War II . She received a working grant from the Senator for Cultural Affairs in Berlin and money from a private fundraising campaign initiated by Professor Stefanie Endlich and Rainer Höynck. From 1989 to 1991 the landscape artist created the " Andartis " in collaboration with the residents of the village of Anogia and especially with the shepherds of the Cretan Nida plateau . During the two years around 5,000 natural stones were collected for the 32 meter long and 9 meter wide work of art, the "Partisan of Peace", the image of a winged partisan . Many of the rocks used had been distributed on the Nida plateau during the war to prevent German planes from landing. In 1990 a documentary film for “ Andartis ” was made by Klaus Salge, Berlin, and Sakis Maniatis, Athens, on behalf of the SFB . On June 23, 1991 the "Andartis" was inaugurated on the Nida plateau on the north side of the Psiloritis.

For the International Horticultural Exhibition 1993 (IGA '93) in the park landscape of the Green U in on the Wartberg site in Stuttgart, Karina Raeck set up the art station " Bei der Buche ". The crown of a mighty copper beech tree is traced on the earth by a circle of stone thrones and throne fragments . "These" petrified guards ", observatories over a historical landscape [...] should bring the lost dialogue in our time between the built and the grown back to life" ( Karina Raeck, 1993 ).

With "Erd-Mal" Karina Raeck arranged around three ash trees approx. 80 cm high earth walls and an approx. 2 m high pyramid with limestone rubble and nutrient-poor soil. The art-ecological landscape project took place in Unna from 1994 to 1995. Overall, the "earth mark" extends over an area of ​​approx. 35 by 40 m and is overgrown with wild herbs.

From 1998 Karina Raeck realized participation projects in exchange with Athens and Berlin schools: 1999 “In the Labyrinth of the Tortoise” at the comprehensive school Finsterwalde, Niederlausitz, in cooperation with the landscape planning office EFEU Berlin. From 2002 "In the maze of the Minotaur" at the Templiner Strasse comprehensive school, Berlin Prenzlauerberg, "Babylon" an architectural sculpture, Schönhauser Allee comprehensive school, Berlin, "Stone Theater", Zepernick elementary school, in collaboration with the landscape architect Hartmut Solmsdorf. And from 2006 to 2007 the architectural monument "Orama Ilion -Trojanischer Steinring" in cooperation with EFEU and the LIFE Organization Athens in the schoolyard of the Heinrich-Schliemann-Gymnasium, Berlin, as well as the design and the artistic construction management for a "watercourse" through the amphitheater Limestone steps of the Homer Elementary School playground, Berlin.

"I Mnimi tou Dendrou - The Memory of the Tree" is the title of Karina Raeck's project about the fire disaster in 1998 in the Attic hills. As part of the EC – Art Festival , she documented her search for traces of life on the burned mountains Pendeli and Hymettos in 2008 . In the same year Karina Raeck received the German Critics' Prize in the field of "Fine Arts". In 2010 she received a grant from the artist residence “Villa Fontaine” in Antibes , southern France, and during her stay she created the photo documentation “Vision Antipolis - Archeology of an Imaginary City”.

She traveled again and again to Greece and southern France. After a long stay in Berlin, Karina Raeck now lives and works in Crete again.

Exhibitions and installations

• 1970: Karina Raeck solo exhibition, Galerie Wendtorf and Svetec, Düsseldorf
• 1973: Karina Raeck solo exhibition, Neue Galerie, Aachen
• 1973: Landscape / Death Garden , New Gallery, Ludwig Collection, Aachen
• 1973: Cimetière , 8th Biennale de Paris, Musée dʻArt Moderne, Paris
• 1975: Stage design Jeunes barbaren d'aujourd'hui , Théâtre Mouffetard, Paris
• 1977 Chants of Maldoror , Alphonse Chave Gallery, Vence, South of France
• 1979: Sunken ruins , sculpture garden at the Berlin radio tower
• 1981: Visionary architectural sculpture , City Museum Düsseldorf
• 1982: Monument to a sinking city , group exhibition
• 1982: Past-Present-Future , Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart
• 1983: Akropolis room installation, group exhibition
• 1983: Consumer cenotaph in the annual exhibition of the German Association of Artists, Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin-Kreuzberg
• 1983: Brick desert installation,
• 1984: Art Landscape Federal Republic of Art Association Pforzheim
• 1984: Montagne Sucrale room installation, Berlin Month in Brussels, Raffinerie du Plan K., Brussels
• 1985: Metropolis - Environment Bethanien , Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
• 1985: "Petrified Dragonfly Throne", Bundesgartenschau 85, Berlin
• 1986: The Pratolino Wonder Garden , Villa Romana grant, international park landscape project, Florence
• 1993: Beech sanctuary , park landscape project, international garden show, IGA 93 Stuttgart
• 1994: Erd-Mal art-ecological landscape project, Unna, Westphalen
• 1994/95: Schlangenhof Tucholskystrasse, art-ecological courtyard project, Berlin-Mitte
• 1995: Andartis - Monument for Peace, photo documentation exhibition and book presentation, Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf
• 1997: Andartis - Monument for Peace Traveling exhibition to Chania, Crete and cultural center "GAZI", Athens
• 1999: In the labyrinth of the turtle Finsterwalde comprehensive school, Niederlausitz, in cooperation with the landscape planning office EFEU Berlin.
• 2000: Lost Time - Archeology of the Recent Past Photo documentation, Bodo Niemann Gallery, Berlin.
• 2003: Petrified water snake landscape sculpture, International Garden Show, Rostock
• 2002: Pompeii ruins garden , house community “Fehre 8”, Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg
• 2006: The walls and the treasure of Priam Art in public space in Berlin-Pankow , Berlin
• 2008: Gleisdreieck 1978 Photographs by Karina Raeck and Gary Rieveschl, Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin
• 2008: I Mnimi tou Dendrou - The Memory of the Tree , photo documentation, Danish Archaeological Cultural Institute, Athens
• 2009: De Dada à demain - L'esprit Chave exhibition participation, Fondation Emile Hugues, Chateau de Villeneuve, Vence
• 2012: Bernauer Strasse - photographs by Karina Raeck and Gary Rieveschl, Berlin Wall Memorial
• 2014: Geocreating group exhibition, photo and text Andartis - Monument for Peace in the Agios Marcos Basilica, Heraklion, Crete
• 2014: Memories of a tree , photo documentation of the forest fire disasters in Athens, Open Monument Day
• 2014: Color in Art - The Language of Light , group exhibition, Künstlerhaus 19, Berlin-Schlachtensee

literature

• Karina Raeck: Andartis - Monument for Peace . 2nd edition Biblioekdotike, Athen 2005, ISBN 3-9804575-2-4 (texts in ancient Greek, modern Greek and German by Stefanie Endlich, Rainer Höynck, Eberhard Rondholz , Marlen von Xylander).
• Walter Vitt, Anogia auf Kreta - Karina Raeck's “Monument for Peace”, in: “NIKE”, Munich, No. 33, 8th year, May / June 1990, p. 56.
• Environment Bethanien: Karina Raeck, Fritz Gilow, Raffael Rheinsberg, Wolf Kahlen, Anna Oppermann, Dieter Appelt, Dorothee von Windheim, Nikolaus Lang, Lili Fischer. Publica Berlin, 1985, ISBN 9783890870267
• Art landscape Federal Republic. Young art in German art associations. Working group of German art associations. Klett-Cotta, 1984, ISBN 3608762019
• Karina Raeck: visionary architectural landscapes . City Museum, 1980
• Pierre Chave présente les travaux de Karina Raeck: Chants de Maldoror , Jardins Sacrés, Maquette Pierre Chave, 1977 [exhibition catalog on Gesänge des Maldoror ]

Web links

Commons : At the beech  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Karina Raeck biography, Künstlerhaus 19, Berlin-Schlachtensee
• Hartmut Witte: artist time artist photographs 1964 - 2010, by Maren Heyne, PDF Karina Raeck: pages 120 to 123
• Biennale de Paris, Archives, Karina Raeck: Karina Raeck (French) , 1973 archive data on exhibitions, accessed May 17, 2015

Individual evidence

1. ^ DIE ZEIT, June 1, 1979 No. 23, art calendar, Daghild Bartels: Berlin “Karina Raeck” , accessed May 17, 2015
2. ↑ Kunstverein Springhornhof, Galerie Falazik ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ^ Gleisdreieck 1978, photographs by Karina Raeck and Gary Rieveschl, Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin
4. ^ The Bernauer Strasse, photographs by Karina Raeck and Gary Rieveschl
5. ↑ Karina Raeck, "Versunkene Kultstätte", 1980 ( Memento of the original from December 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ^ Structure of the "Cenotaph" 1983
7. ↑ Karina Raeck, Versteinerter Libellenthron, 1985 ( Memento of the original from June 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ↑ From the Federal Horticultural Show 1985 to the Britzer Garten 2015, Facetten-Magazin, April 2015 , accessed May 17, 2015
9. ^ Andartis: Memorial for Peace , Crete Environment Forum, accessed May 17, 2015
10. ↑ May 2015 / 08-2142.JPG Bild Erd-Mal , art in public space, Unna  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
11. ^ Homer Elementary School: Karina Raeck, Wasserlauf
12. ↑ Critics' Awards 2008 in Cottbus, Potsdamer Latest News May 19, 2008 , accessed May 17, 2015
13. ^ Karina Raeck décors, Théâtre Mouffetard, Paris 1975
14. ^ Special exhibition in the German Museum of Technology 2009: Gleisdreieck 1978
15. ↑ The tree: symbol of a lost unity of man and nature ( memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Newsletter, Greece Newspaper, Issue 134, June 4th 2008